TOP STORIES

The Conde Nast Traveler magazine has just released its annual list of the world’s friendliest cities, and New Zealand’s own Queenstown has come out in fourth place.

More than 128,000 people voted in this Readers’ Choice Award. Queenstown cracked the top five, while Auckland and Wellington also made it to the top 20, ranking 15th and 17th respectively. The three cities that beat Queenstown were (in order), Charleston in South Carolina in the USA, Sydney in Australia, and Dublin in Ireland.

Last year, Auckland managed to win sixth place, while no other New Zealand cities made the top 20.

Unfortunately for the United States, the entire top 10 of least friendly cities in the world were found there, with New Jersey’s Newark in the unwanted top spot.

A five-day ‘Best of New Zealand’ roadshow has just wrapped up in the US, and operators have reportedly finished the trip feeling “ecstatic” about its success.

Eight of New Zealand’s travel and tourism operators attended the conference, and in doing so were able to teach more than 460 frontline salespeople about their offerings.

The roadshow focused on the less traditional markets outside of the west coast, which is already well-established. It was the first of four roadshows of its kind that will focus on different cities around the US and Canada later this year.

T.H.E. International’s sales manager Kerry Lahood pointed out how the roadshows are being held at the perfect time for New Zealand.

“The timing of the event was beneficial, particularly with the strong growth in visitor numbers from the US over the last 18 months and the recent increased airline capacity and schedules between the US and New Zealand.”

IN BRIEF

Currently, there are limited options for tourists to visit areas in Auckland’s northwest such as Woodhill Forest and Parakai despite the great attractions available there. The North West District Business Association will soon offer a shuttle bus service to entice more visitors to these areas. Read more

Air New Zealand has joined forces with Chua Enlai to encourage more Singaporean visitors to visit the country. In a hilarious video, the famous Singaporean acts out various personalities during the flight to New Zealand. Read more

New Zealand’s most popular camping app, CamperMate, already has a huge following thanks to its features showing travellers where to go for food, petrol and everything in between. The app has now teamed up with parking companies to introduces information on available parking in NZ. Read more

Star Alliance has long offered ‘Round the World’ fares that help travellers see many parts of the globe for a low price, but it has now introduced themed ‘Round the World’ itineraries. Themes include trips such as ‘wine tasting’ and ‘natural wonders’, so will no doubt give travellers more opportunities to visit New Zealand. Read more

Auckland has just become the most popular city in the world for foreign buyers to purchase a second home for vacations overseas. In fact, the number of sales of million-dollar homes in the city has tripled in just three years. Read more

A new website, NZ Business Traveller, will be launched in September to help those travelling throughout the country and overseas better plan their trips. The site will include reviews, product updates, travel news and more. Read more